Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2016

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Psychology

Major Professor

Jacob J. Levy

Committee Members

John W. Lounsbury, Eric D. Sundstrom, Barbara A. Murphy

Abstract

There is evidence to suggest that many university schools of music struggle with student retention. In many music programs, a significant factor in students being able to matriculate in their areas of study is based on quality of performance under “high-stakes” or high-pressure performances in the form of jury performances. The importance placed on these jury performances makes the ability to predict a student’s success in this area highly valuable to students and music educators. Using the Big Five Model of personality, and a measure of narrow personality traits, this study used a stepwise multiple regression to examine the relationship between performance outcomes (jury scores), personality, musical performance anxiety, and dispositional flow in a sample of students enrolled in an applied college music program (N= 109). The overall prediction model was not found to be significant. The narrow personality trait of Work Drive (β = .27), and performance anxiety in a solo context (β = - .31) were shown to be the only significant and unique predictors of jury scores. Results also revealed multiple significant inter-correlations among variables, finding significant correlations between flow and jury scores, solo specific performance anxiety and flow, Neuroticism and performance anxiety, Neuroticism and flow, and performance anxiety in ensemble and practice settings. Results lend support to a model of context specific musical performance anxiety. The findings of this study serve to lay a foundation for possible future paths of research by narrowing the scope of possible predictors of musical performance for further investigation.

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